feature — the end-to-end feature loop

Nine phases. Four of them are gates: stop, present, wait for the user. The rest is work.

#	Phase	Ends with
0	Intake — worktree? scale?	a decision
1	Explore + draft architecture	1–2 candidate designs
2	Codex architecture consult	agreement, or a framed disagreement
3	Present the plan	🚦 user approval
4	Implementation contract	🚦 user approval
5	Implement	diffs
6	Verify	lint/tsc/tests/screenshots green
6b	Comment pass	verdicts on every added comment
7	Two codex reviews	structured findings
8	Triage findings	🚦 user arbitration, then fixes
9	Document + walkthrough	archdoc, optional tour, optional kb

Open every report with position. One line, before anything else: Phase 6 of 9 — verify. Done 0–5. The plan file's checkboxes are the record; this restates them in the reply, because a build runs over many turns and the reader should not have to rebuild progress from prose or open the file to find it.

Close every report with one next action, doable in under two minutes, phrased as an action rather than a question. Run npm test -- setTimer, then I'll take phase 7. beats want me to continue?.

Everything durable lands in two files, both named off the feature slug:

• lambda/scripts/plans/YYYYMMDD-<slug>.md — the plan, with phase checkboxes. Written at phase 3 and updated as you go, so a compacted or crashed session can resume from disk.
• lambda/scripts/plans/YYYYMMDD-<slug>.codex.md — the full Claude↔Codex conversation, appended live.

The reader

Every plan, contract, triage and report in this loop is written for Anton, the sole author of this app. Calibrate depth to what he knows, in both directions.

Skip the explanation. React, TypeScript and Node he knows at expert level. lens-shmens and yatro are his own libraries, so never define what a lens is or how a lb<IState>() path resolves; show the lens path and move on. The same goes for the reducer/thunk shape, IState vs IStorage, the Liftoscript parser and planner, and the lambda router. Redux-style state, useEffect ordering, TS generics and Node streams need no gloss.

Remind, briefly. He designed the architecture and knows it well, but the codebase is now large enough that he forgets parts. When a plan leans on a specific mechanism (reducerWrapper merge detection, screenRemovalCleanup, the watch filtering in filterStorageForWatch, the storage-version migration chain), one or two sentences on what that piece does and why it is shaped that way is welcome. Inline the 5–20 lines of the code involved, as the plan rules require. A reminder names the mechanism and its consequence; a tutorial explains the concept from zero. Write reminders.

Explain more. React Native he knows at working level, below his browser React. Anything that is RN-specific rather than React-specific gets a sentence: why Fabric matters here, what formSheet does to the layout chain, why a Pressable behaves differently from a <button>, what Metro does with a given import. Spell out platform differences instead of assuming he has hit them before.

Explain fully. Swift, Kotlin, Xcode, Gradle, iOS and Android SDKs he knows least. Any change under ios/ or android/, any Turbo Module, codegen spec, Info.plist or AndroidManifest.xml entry, entitlement, pod, or build phase gets the treatment a strong web engineer new to native needs: what the file is for, what each changed line does, how it gets picked up by the build, what breaks if it is wrong, and how to see it working (the exact xcodebuild or ./gradlew command, or the simulator step). Name the lifecycle or threading rule involved when there is one, such as WatchConnectivity delivery guarantees or a main-thread requirement.

Anchor native in the browser world when there is a clear analogue. He learns a native concept fastest through the web concept he already owns, so lead with the analogue and then name where it differs. UICollectionView / RecyclerView cell reuse is a virtualized list with recycled DOM nodes. Info.plist and AndroidManifest.xml are the app's manifest.json plus permissions policy. DispatchQueue.main.async is queueMicrotask on the UI thread. An NSUserDefaults / SharedPreferences read is localStorage. A Turbo Module is a native addon exposed through a typed binding, the way a Node N-API module is. viewDidAppear / onResume is the visibilitychange event for one screen. Use the analogue only where it holds; when the native behaviour diverges (cell reuse resets state the way a recycled DOM node would not, onResume fires on every foreground return where visibilitychange does not on a new push), say so in the same sentence, or the analogue misleads instead of helping. When no analogue fits, explain it from scratch instead of forcing one.

---

Phase 0 — Intake

Worktree or here? If the invocation says ("in a worktree", "right here"), obey it silently. Otherwise ask — one question, two options. Worktree → invoke the worktree skill to create it, then continue there.

Scale check. This loop is a tax on small changes. If the feature touches roughly one file, adds no public API, no new state, and no cross-platform surface — say so, skip to phase 5, and just implement it. Announce the skip; don't silently drop the ceremony.

Slug. Kebab-case, from the feature name. Used for both file names.

Phase 1 — Explore, then draft

Read the real code before designing. Spawn Explore agents when the surface is broad or spans layers (TS chain vs native components vs lambda), and have them return verbatim signatures + file:line, not prose summaries.

Then draft one recommended design plus at most one serious alternative. For each: what changes, what new state exists, what the data flow is, what it costs. No exhaustive surveys.

Phase 2 — Codex architecture consult

Codex is read-only. It analyzes; we implement. It gets the repo, so hand it paths and a problem, never pasted file bodies.

Codex advises the user, not you. Whatever it says, in this phase or in the phase 7 reviews, reaches the user as a list with your verdict on each item, and nothing changes in the tree until the user picks. In this phase that means its pushback reshapes the draft the user approves at phase 3; it never triggers an edit on its own.

Round 1 prompt shape — write it to a file, then send it (see Talking to codex below):

# Architecture review

## What we're building
[2-4 sentences, user-visible outcome]

## Where it lives
[the file surface: paths + one line each on what they do]

## My proposed design
[the design: new modules, signatures, state, data flow]

## Alternative I rejected
[and why]

## Your job
Attack this design. Specifically:
1. Where does it break as the feature grows?
2. Is the state in the right place, and is any of it redundant?
3. Is there a materially simpler shape that gets the same result?
4. What does it collide with elsewhere in this codebase?

Ground every claim in code you actually read — give file:line. If you agree with
a part, say so in one line and move on; spend your words on what's wrong.

Rounds are capped at 2. Round 2 (--resume, so codex keeps its context) is only for real disagreement — send your counter-argument, not a summary. After round 2, if you still disagree: stop and escalate to the user, framed as

Codex says X, because Y. I say Z, because W. The real tradeoff is [the thing that actually differs]. My recommendation: [pick one].

Never loop until you agree, and never adopt codex's view just because it pushed back twice. Verify its claims against the code first — codex cites lines that don't exist often enough that this matters.

Phase 3 — Present the plan 🚦

The plan must be readable in one pass, without opening the editor. Hard rules:

• Every symbol, function, or file you mention comes with its code inlined, right there, 5–20 lines. Writing "like we do in app.tsx:234" or "using the helper in program.ts:324" without the snippet is banned — that's the failure mode this rule exists to kill.
• Open with one plain paragraph on what the user sees or can do once this ships. Before any code.
• Pitch the depth per The reader above. No definitions of lenses, yatro, or the reducer shape. A one-line reminder for the app mechanism the plan leans on. A full walkthrough for anything under ios/ or android/. Short sentences. No stacked abstractions.
• ASCII sketches only if they help. No mermaid, no diagrams-for-decoration.
• Follow the prose rules below: no pipe tables, one paragraph per line, one list item per line, sections named and never numbered.
• Lead with a call tree or pseudocode for anything whose branches matter — plain indentation in a fence, no bullets, no line numbers.
• End with "What we're not doing" and the open questions that need your call, each with a recommendation.

Save it to lambda/scripts/plans/YYYYMMDD-<slug>.md with the phase checkboxes, then ask for approval. Do not start editing before you get it.

Phase 4 — Implementation contract 🚦

Before the first edit, show — as code, not prose:

1. Public API: exact signatures of every new or changed exported function, and the file each one lives in. Follow the repo convention (ModuleName_functionName).
2. Interfaces and data structures: new/changed interface/type declarations, verbatim.
3. All new state, one line each, with where it lives and why it must live there:
   • useState/useRef — which component, what invalidates it
   • IState — the lens path
   • IStorage — flag this loudly: persisted state needs a storage-version and sync/watch story (see the checklist below)
4. Tests: which existing test files grow, or which new one appears — decided now, not after.
5. Logic home: one line per behaviour the feature adds — a decision, a state machine, a text transform, a save rule — naming the pure module that owns it and the test file that covers it. A .tsx in this list fails the gate; see "Where logic lives" in CLAUDE.md. The component's line in the contract says only what it renders and which effects it runs.

This gate is short. The user says "yes" or corrects a signature.

Phase 5 — Implement

Use Edit and Write only. No sed, no python, no heredoc rewrites of existing files. The user reviews your diffs as you go; a scripted edit is invisible to them and silently no-ops when the pattern doesn't match.

Work in the order of the contract: types first, then the core module, then the call sites, then UI. Keep each edit small enough to read.

Phase 6 — Verify

• npm run lint and TypeScript on what you touched
• npx ts-node scripts/lint-views.ts — answer every warning: move the decision, or add the baseline entry with its reason
• the relevant tests (npm run onetest for one file)
• UI features get driven, not assumed — use the test-app skill on the simulator or the playwright MCP on web, and screenshot the result

Report failures with their output. Never claim green without running it.

Phase 6b — Comment pass

Spawn the comment-pass agent before the codex reviews, so codex reads the code without comment noise.

It judges every comment the branch added or modified against the rule in CLAUDE.md and hands back a verdict each: keep, delete, rename, or move to archdoc. It reports and does not edit — a rename has to land consistently across the file and its callers, and you have that context.

Apply the deletes and renames yourself. Push back on any verdict you disagree with and say why in your report to the user; the agent is not the final word.

Push back hardest on its keeps. A feature ends with four or five comments, so a report keeping more than that has rubber-stamped the author's own justifications — read each keep against the delete test yourself and cut the rest before you apply anything. The rationale for a deleted comment belongs in the archdoc from Phase 8, not back in the source.

Phase 7 — Two codex reviews

Run both against the branch diff, in parallel, each in its own transcript section. Give codex the diff scope (git diff $(git merge-base master HEAD)..HEAD --stat plus the paths), not file dumps. Both use --schema schemas/review.schema.json.

Review A — bugs and edge cases:

Adversarial bug review. Assume this change is broken until the code proves otherwise.
Scope: [paths / diff range]

Hunt for:
- edge cases the change forgot: empty, zero, one, missing, stale, concurrent
- behavior it changes *elsewhere* — existing callers, other screens, other platforms
- state that can go out of sync, or persist in a shape older builds can't read
- error and loading paths, not just the happy path

Only material findings, each defensible from code you read: what breaks, why this
path is vulnerable, what the impact is, what change fixes it.

Review B — architecture. Its scope is wider than the diff: every .tsx the diff touched is read whole, because responsibility creep is a property of the file, and a reviewer reading hunks sees only small, justified additions. Paste the "Where logic lives" section of CLAUDE.md into the prompt verbatim.

Architecture review of the same change.
Scope: [paths / diff range]. Read each .tsx in the diff in full, not only its hunks.

The rule this codebase holds views to:
[the "Where logic lives" section of CLAUDE.md, verbatim]

Judge, with reasons:
- is the public API right — names, shapes, who is allowed to call what?
- is every new piece of state justified, and in the right place? What could be derived instead?
- for each function inside a touched component or hook: render, effect, or decision? List every
  decision, the module it belongs in, and the test that module would have. A state machine kept
  in refs is a decision.
- could this be materially simpler or clearer? Show the simpler shape concretely.
- does it fit how the rest of this codebase already does things, or invent a parallel way?

Not style or naming nitpicks. Architecture only.

Phase 8 — Triage 🚦

For each finding: open the code and check it before believing it. Then sort into

• Confirmed — real, here's the fix
• Rejected — with the concrete reason it doesn't apply
• Your call — genuine tradeoffs, presented with a recommendation

Drop findings under 0.3 confidence. Present the three buckets and stop.

Never act on a codex finding without the user's explicit go-ahead. Not the confirmed ones, not the one-line "obvious" ones, not a rename. A finding you verified as real is still a finding, and the reply that presents it contains zero edits. The user reads the list and says which to fix: "fix all confirmed", "fix 1 and 3, skip 2", or "none". Only then apply those fixes (Edit only) and re-verify. If the user's answer is silence or a new topic, the findings stay unfixed and the plan file records them as open.

Phase 9 — Document

• Run the archdoc skill for the durable subsystem doc (or refresh the existing one).
• Offer the explain-changes walkthrough for an in-editor tour of the diff.
• If something non-obvious surfaced — a landmine, a root cause, a decision with real reasoning behind it — offer kb.
• Don't commit. The user commits.

---

Liftosaur blast radius — check before coding

Mechanical checks, every time; each one is a bug class that has actually bitten this repo:

• .native.tsx twin? ls <file>.native.tsx — a platform variant means the change must land in both, or deliberately in one.
• Web build still fine? RN-only APIs and react-navigation imports break it.
• Imported by lambda SSR? SSR chokes on react-navigation's ESM — invert with callback props.
• Touching IStorage? Then: storage version, migration for existing users, and the watch/sync filtering path. Persisted-shape changes are the most expensive mistakes here.
• Touching sync/merge? reducerWrapper and defaultOnActions must agree on merge detection.
• New UI in a modal? Check the formSheet/transparentModal rules — flex-1 collapses inside formSheet.
• Android specifics — sticky headers eat taps, controlled TextInput + transform duplicates characters, dynamic className drops styles.

Talking to codex

.claude/skills/feature/codex-chat.sh runs one turn and renders the stream live into the transcript.

.claude/skills/feature/codex-chat.sh \
  --transcript lambda/scripts/plans/20260819-my-feature.codex.md \
  --title "Architecture · round 1" \
  --prompt-file /tmp/.../prompt.md \
  [--resume] [--schema .claude/skills/feature/schemas/review.schema.json] \
  [--effort high] [--model gpt-5.6-sol] [--timeout 900]

• Always run_in_background: true — a real consult takes 2–5 minutes. Poll the output file every 20–30s.
• --resume continues the same codex thread (id kept in the .thread sibling), so round 2 remembers round 1.
• Codex's final answer is written to the .last.md sibling — read that, don't re-parse the stream.
• Two reviews in phase 7 run as two separate backgrounded calls; give them different transcripts (...codex-review-bugs.md, ...codex-review-arch.md) so their threads don't cross.

Give the user the watch command in chat, in the same message that launches the consult — the script prints it too, but that stdout goes to the tool result, which the user never sees. It must be a copy-pasteable line on its own, with the absolute path, posted before you start polling — not after codex finishes, when it's useless:

Codex is thinking (~3 min). Watch it live:

tail -f /Users/anton/projects/liftosaur/lambda/scripts/plans/20260819-my-feature.codex.md

Or open that file in VS Code — it updates as the stream arrives. In this session, ! tail -n 40 <that path> drops the latest into the chat.

Repeat it for every consult, including each of the two phase-7 reviews — they write to different transcripts, so it's a different command each time.

The transcript is a plain markdown log: your prompt verbatim in a fence, then codex's shell commands (> $ …), reasoning (> 💭 …) and replies as they arrive. It gets committed with the plan — it's the record of why the architecture is what it is.

Resuming

The plan file's checkboxes are the state. On "continue the feature" / after a compaction: read the newest lambda/scripts/plans/YYYYMMDD-<slug>.md, find the first unchecked phase, re-orient with git diff, and pick up there. Tick each box as you complete it.

Plan file template

# <Feature> — plan
*<date> · branch `<name>` · worktree: <yes/no>*

- [ ] 0 intake
- [ ] 1 draft
- [ ] 2 codex arch
- [ ] 3 approved
- [ ] 4 contract
- [ ] 5 implement
- [ ] 6 verify
- [ ] 6b comment pass
- [ ] 7 reviews
- [ ] 8 triage
- [ ] 9 documented

## What the user gets
## How it works
## The contract (API · types · state)
## What we're not doing
## Open questions
## Codex
Transcript: `./<slug>.codex.md`. Agreed: … · Disagreed: … (resolution: …)

Prose rules

Generated from PROSE.md. Do not edit here — edit PROSE.md and run npx ts-node scripts/generate-prose-rules.ts.

The line is the unit of meaning. No hard wrap. One paragraph per line, one list item per line, blank lines between paragraphs. Never pack two checkboxes or two bullets onto one line.

Lists, not tables. No pipe tables. They read as a wall of | in the editor and a one-word edit rewrites the whole line in the diff. The only exception is data with two real axes, as a fixed-width aligned block inside a fence, at most one per document.

Cross-references name the thing, never a number. Strip every link from a sentence and it must still say what it points at. Never §4, never section 3.2, never a link whose text is :1511, never see above. Link the symbol name, or name the behaviour: the fall-through, the 250ms tick.

No line numbers in prose or in fences. No // :N comments. A fence shows shape; the links live in the surrounding list.

Every sentence names a symbol, a file, a number, or a consequence. A sentence naming none of those is filler. "The nonce keeps it stable" is short and useless. "The nonce survives the flip, so promoting the countdown does not re-present the banner" carries the fact.

Short sentences in plain words. One idea per sentence, under 20 words. No colon or semicolon that joins two thoughts; write two sentences. Common words first, then the platform term once in brackets: "asleep (suspended)". Say who does what: "the watch asks the phone", never "the phone is asked". The reader is not a native English speaker, and every idiom or 40-word sentence makes them read it twice.

An estimate is a number and the condition it depends on. "Roughly a day", "a small change", cheap — none of those can be planned around. "Twenty minutes if the codegen is current, half a day if the pod install has to be redone" can. Effort is a number, so the sentence rule above already covers it: an estimate without one is filler.

Restate position in multi-step work. One line at the top of a report saying where we are, every turn: "phase 5 of 8 done". The reader should never reconstruct progress from prose, and a checkbox list in a file they are not looking at does not do this job.

A reply or a plan ends with one next action, doable in under two minutes. Not a question. "Reload VSCode, then click IActiveSetTimer" beats "want me to keep going?", which hands the reader the work of deciding what happens next. An archdoc has no next action and ends with its debugging map instead.

Banned outright

Fake idioms, say the mechanism instead: load-bearing, smoking gun, north star, lodestar, footgun, sharp edge, moving parts, the whole point, the entire point.

Economics metaphors for code, say the actual cost or benefit with a number: cheap, expensive, for free, buys us, pays for itself, earns its keep, costs us.

The negation-contrast tic, state the second half and delete the first: X is not Y, it is Z, not just X but Y, isn't about X, it's about Y, less a X than a Y.

Emphasis adverbs that measure nothing, delete or replace with a number: actually, genuinely, precisely, crucially, critically, importantly, fundamentally, essentially, simply, merely, truly, dramatically, significantly, massively, wildly.

Meta-narration, say the thing instead of announcing it: here's the thing, the key insight, worth noting, note that, to be clear, that said, in other words, which is to say, at its core, the real question is.

Marketing words: robust, seamless, elegant, surgical, comprehensive, leverage, principled, nuanced, delve.

The catch-all: a metaphor is banned unless it is a term of art in this codebase. Describe the mechanism. This includes the mild ones: armed, fires, wins, trusted to, on its own clock. Use the API's own word or say what happens: "the timer already scheduled", "the OS delivers it". Fences are prose too; a call tree's annotations follow the same rule.

Budgeted, not banned

Per document: deliberate three times, by construction twice, first-class once, one em-dash per eight lines. scar tissue is unlimited, it is a section name in archdocs. rather than is ordinary English and is not restricted.

Comments in code

Default: zero comments. A comment is an admission that the code failed to explain itself.

Before writing one, try in this order: a better name, extracting a named function, a named constant instead of a literal, restructuring so the branch is obvious. A comment is allowed only when all four fail.